Larson, Lyle D.

Anthony Lanza, a founding member of Lanza & Smith PLC, has 20 years of experience in general corporate, business, and commercial litigation and transactional counseling.

Anthony Lanza has successfully handled multiple sophisticated litigation matters through resolution, in state, federal, and appellate courts, including actions involving manufacturer, distributor, and retailer disputes under the Commercial Code, breach of fiduciary duty, directors & officers liability, malicious prosecution, securities, fraud, RICO and dozens of contract disputes. Anthony Lanza has substantial real estate litigation experience, including: commercial unlawful detainer, nuisance, trespass, construction claims, mechanics liens, judicial and non-judicial foreclosure, premises liability, construction defect, inverse condemnation, eminent domain, environmental disputes, and breach of developer, contractor, and real property purchase contracts. He has also represented, and continues to represent, employers in disputes involving wrongful termination, breach of contract, harassment, discrimination, common law and statutory public policy claims, whistleblower, ADA, and ERISA.

Mr. Lanza is a successful trial attorney, as partially evidenced by a $1.5 million unanimous jury trial verdict he obtained - as lead trial counsel - in federal court in the matter of Martin v. Arrow Electronics, which was the second largest federal trial verdict in Orange County in 2006. More recently, Mr. Lanza and Brodie Smith successfully defended a $6.5 million RICO lawsuit for three defendants, pursuant to a unanimous jury verdict in federal court in 2009.

Transactional practice areas for Anthony Lanza include general corporate counseling for small cap and local start-up companies, including business entity formation, capital financing, employment matters, and general compliance issues.

Anthony Lanza graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1987 from the University of Notre Dame, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with Minors in Philosophy and Military Science. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army in May of 1987, and retired from reserve military service nine years later as a Captain. Anthony Lanza received his Juris Doctorate degree in 1991 from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where he served on the Hastings Law Review. He was admitted to the California State Bar that same year. He clerked for Chief Justice J. Clifford Wallace on the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Diego, California. He is a member of the California State Bar and the Notre Dame Law Association. Anthony Lanza has also served on the Board of Directors of the Notre Dame Club of Orange County, an arm of the Alumni Association. He is married with two children.